The harsh stab of the dawn sun shone harshly through Hermione's bedroom window, and with it came the stark reminder of who she shared a bed with the previous night. And it wasn't like she could blame anyone but herself because if she remembered correctly she was the one that suggested him to stay the night with her.

She stiffened and laid unmoving on the bed as she felt the pleasant touch of soft flesh on her back. A gentle hand laid limply on her hip and the soft breath of Lucius hit her neck and tickled slightly. She would be lying if she said she wanted to move. This was nice. To be in the arms of a man who chose to be here on his own accord and not one that had a mistress off carrying his child unbeknownst to her.

She sighed sadly. This would not last, and she was stupid to even lay here and relish in the warmth of another human being. She did not deserve this. Well, deep down she felt as if she didn't. She was so self-absorbed in her own career that she had made it to this age and was now cold and alone with only a man to warm her bed under terms and conditions. She exhaled sharply through her nose. How things had changed.

The fingers on her hip stirred softly before jolting alive, tracing light circular motions.

"Morning," he murmured groggily. His lips pressing against her shoulder in a modest show of tenderness. They both stiffened at the sentiment, and both for different reasons. He because he had a lapse in judgement and forgot that despite waking up next to the witch, they were merely in this predicament for the same reason and it wasn't romance.

She stiffened at the display of affection because not only was she never expecting something like this, and she would never have expected it to come from Lucius Malfoy, but she liked it. It was a sweet gesture, she thought to herself.

"Thanks for staying the night." She blurted out, seeking to break the uncomfortable silence that now hung thick in the air and was gnawing at her psyche like a rabid dog. Why should this be uncomfortable? She pondered to herself. They were both grown adults in a mutually agreed sexual relationship, so why should one show of closeness to the other deemed inappropriate?

"I've been thinking," Lucius mumbled, still trying to wake up and ignoring her thanks.

"Did it hurt?" She asked casually before realising she wasn't with Ron and went to apologise. She turned to face him, only to see a light smirk planted on his face.

"Are you always that smart?" He asked softly, reaching up and tucking a stray curl behind her ear.

"I have my moments." She beamed back sheepishly.

"I know you haven't conceived yet but when and if the time comes, I would like to send my best elf over to help oversee the raising of our child and to help you out."

Her face instantly screwed up in disgust. "I cannot accept that, Lucius. You know I like to do things myself and the elf would be wasted here."

He exhaled loudly. He assumed she would be like this. She was always like this. "It's because if you have an elf, you won't be in full control of our child like you are in every other aspect of your life. You loathe beyond measure not being able to control every aspect of your life. It irks you. It eats at your psyche and gives you anxiety. When you aren't in control, it makes you feel sick. It puts you on edge." He noticed her expression change from gentle to hard and steely, and she looked annoyed.

"That's not me at all," she whispered hollowly, looking right through him. She didn't need to be in control of every aspect of her life and he was stupid to think she was that pedantic.

"Oh. Please. Hermione. I can read you like an open book. You try to hide behind a tough facade and push everyone away. But it won't work on me. I've seen your kind before. I've dealt with your kind. Narcissa was exactly your kind, and I finally got through to her and broke down her walls and I feel you just need that one person to break down yours or you will never be happy."

"With all due respect, Lucius, I don't need anyone to break down anything of mine. I am content living the life I am living, thank you very much."

He snorted derisively. "And yet here you are. With me. In your bed. Wanting to change your life far beyond the realm of what it is now by ways and means of a child."

She didn't say another word because somehow she knew he was right, and her logic was flawed, and she hated that. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Lucius sat on the edge of the bed and fished around on the floor for his pants. Locating them, he pulled the belt swiftly from the loops of his pants. The black leather caught the corner of her eye and an eyebrow raised subtly.

"What do you plan on doing with that?" She asked in a ghostly whisper, watching the man running his thumb over the smooth satin dragonhide leather.

"Well, Hermione. You say you don't always need to be in control, so let's see how true that sentiment rings."

Swiftly and with an agility that she would have expected to see only from a man twenty years his junior, he had her pinned beneath himself. A knee placed either side of her on the bed and with an almost primal look in his eye, he grabbed her hands and forced them above her head. Sliding the belt under her hands, he looped the leather of the belt through the buckle and tightened the leather against her bare wrists.

She eyed him suspiciously as a surprised yowl fell from her lips and her eyes were deep with question and uncertainty. She already wasn't sure if she would like this.

Holding his belt tight, on one hand, he pulled her hands roughly and thread the leather through a rail on her bedhead and twisted it tightly around itself, tying her roughly to the bed with no ways or means of escape.

"Lucius," she warned sternly in a steely voice.

"Prove to me you need not be in control." He countered with a single raise of his right brow, almost willing her to accept what he was doing.

He leaned forward and touched his lips gently to hers. Still straddling her, his arms now took his weight over the top of her. She needed to learn to let someone else be in control. He couldn't imagine living in her head. She was always a ball of anxiety ready to meltdown at any given time, and she needed to relax.

He kissed across her jawbone and continued to pepper them down her neck and across her collarbone at as slow a pace as he could manage. He felt her flinch beneath him, and he knew deep down it was killing her not to control the situation at hand.

Large hands grasped needily at her panties and pulled them down hastily pulling lips from flesh as he did so. He was not here for his own release, no. He was merely doing this to prove a point to her. He wondered at what point she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut and start barking orders at him.

As thin fabric slid down creamy thighs and over knees, they continued their journey over calves and eventually hit the floor without a sound.

A hand on each thigh ran slowly down to her knees. He moved sideways on the bed before roughly spreading her legs apart. He looked to her and notice a gentle heat crept into her cheeks at the gesture.

He knew she hated being under his gaze like this. She hated her body so much and was so full of insecurities and it killed her to be in this vulnerable position beneath him with no means of escape or covering up.

He watched as she gnawed on her bottom lip, something he noticed she did when she was unsure of a situation. He smiled at her, almost lost in her warm chocolate orbs before bringing himself back to reality. Fuck. What happened there? He tried to push the thoughts aside that were dancing in his head, spinning and swirling like a ballerina on crack. He froze for a moment as he tried to get his thoughts together. This was Hermione Granger. This wasn't Narcissa Malfoy. She was merely here for convenience and nothing more, so why was he staring at her with some stupid impish grin on his face. This much sex was driving him crazy.

He shook his head as if trying to shake the thoughts out of his head, leaning down to her wet heat as his tongue swiped gently at her sweet spot.

Merlin fucking hell. What was he trying to do to her? She could hardly focus after just waking up and her head was still foggy and here he was going to town on her without a fucking qualm or missing a beat. She bit her bottom lip harder and merely let out a mew of delight as his tongue swiped with purpose over her clit again and again. She deduced from how well he was doing this that it wasn't his first nor second rodeo and he schooled well in the art of bringing a woman to euphoria with his tongue… Something she sadly admitted had never been privy too before in her life if she were being honest.

She pulled hard against the restraints, wanting to run her hands through his hair and clutched the sheets. She wanted to scream. She wanted to talk. But she didn't. She would play along with his little game and prove to him she didn't always have to be in control.

His hands rested gently on her thighs as he continued to lap at her warm heat, and he wondered how long it would be before she said anything. He was honestly surprised she had lasted this long and the only sound coming from her was a small mew oh delight and the rapid increase of breath as he brought her closer to her release.

Her legs shook violently beneath his hands and her breathing rapid and raspy, and he knew that he was bringing her to the edge of her release. Her body went limp around him and her breathing quietened. Sliding up her body, he kissed her hard and fiercely, forcing her to taste herself on his lips.

The kiss broke only when a knock on her bedroom door roused them.

"I don't know what sick bondage ritual I am interrupting here, and I might need someone to obliviate my memory after this, but you need to see this." Susan strode purposefully across the room without hesitation.

Lucius pulled a sheet up over the two of them as she tossed the Daily Prophet on the bed. Hermione craned her neck trying to read and was incapable of picking the paper up at present.

"For Merlin sakes. Untie the woman," Susan barked at him.

Once her hands were free, Hermione perused the Daily Prophet that had been thrown at her. Eyes darting side to side as she read with full attention. Lucius read on beside her, his gaze occasionally glimpsing her and the anger that was now clear on her face and emanating from her body.

She dropped the paper in her lap as if it were red hot and possibly cursed and she just sat staring blankly at the wall opposite unblinking. If she wasn't feeling so angry, she would have felt a lot more awkward than she did right now after being walked in on while she had been tied to the bed and naked, but under these circumstances, she didn't care.

"How the fuck could they do this?" She bit, exasperated, throwing her now free hands into the air.

"They would do anything to get the spotlight off of him, pet." He laid a gentle hand on her thigh as if trying to tell her it was all ok.

She couldn't get that vile headline out of her mind or the words that marred the paper in the most maleficent of ways. It was abhorrent.

Minister of lies.

That was the headline that had been splashed across the front page in Times New Roman in the biggest font they could fit within the borders of the page. She was sure if they could, they would have made a super-sized edition just to get the point across even more.

Recently scorned Hermione Granger might have only herself to blame for the recently marital issues and disseverance of her marriage to Ronald Weasley.

Whilst hiding behind the facade of heartbreak and lies, it seemed the Minister was up to her own deceit and lies and just as much to blame as her former husband. Running around behind everyone's backs fraternizing with no other than the richest wizard in Britain, Lucius Malfoy, with the end goal to bear his child, the perfect way too fast track herself to a better life.

This reporter wonders if perhaps the Minister takes her role seriously and will be around to lead us into tomorrow when she has plans to start a family. She cannot possibly raise a child and run the Wizarding World as we know it.

And you may wonder how we obtained this tantalising tidbit of information?

"We walked in on them," An exasperated Molly Weasley admonished to me.

" It was disturbing, to say the least," Added Arthur Weasley.

"They were going at it in the kitchen! The Kitchen! That is where you prepare food, not fornicate." Molly Weasley added.

Is Hermione Granger fit to run the ministry or even still, can we trust her to run the ministry now? Deceit and lies and not a good look for who we once thought was a pure, upstanding pillar in our community.

-Rita Skeeter.

"How. Why?" She whispered to herself, not expecting an answer.

"They needed to take the focus off of their filthy troglodyte of a son, obviously," Lucius started at the same wall she was and wondered if he would now be treated any differently in society now the news had come out.

"Hermione…" Susan butted in gently. "You're going to have to address this… Today. Now, possibly."

"I know," Her voice hollow. A lump in her throat and her chest feeling as if it were about to explode. She would not lose her job over one silly little article. She couldn't very well deny it because it would look like she was an even bigger tale spinner once she conceived a child to him. She just wanted this whole thing to be over and done with. This was their way of trying to make her look bad. She wondered if they would come knocking on her door asking her to drop charges against Ron and they would retract their statements and say it was one huge lie. She knew how they worked. The Weasley's, that was. She knew they could be cunning like a fox and as sneaky as a Niffler. She exhaled hard through her nose. She had to fix this, now.

A/N: Hope you enjoy the chapter! Sorry, it's been so long between chapters… I begin to write, then get side-tracked for days at a time and eventually come back and write a little more.

-Aliasmel1